We just returned from a 7 night cruise aboard the NCL Star out of Tampa. Prior to the cruise, I had read many negative reviews about the staff, the shortage of staff, the poor quality of the food, and generally crappy service. I was very worried, but I shouldn't have been. We had a wonderful cruise, and none of it was in evidence for us!

Embarkation went very smoothly (we are Platinum, and admittedly our line was much shorter). My mom and I had an aft balcony which was HEAVEN! The 10th floor aft cabins are directly under the spa - and we never heard a peep. The room was clean and spacious, the balcony huge, and our steward Eugene, was fantastic! My aunt and uncle had a mini suite on 11 port, and their room was large and lovely! (our balcony was bigger than theirs, but they enjoyed it). They didn't see much of their cabin steward, but he kept the place clean, responded quickly to requests, and took excellent care of them. We ate the first night in the Versailles MDR, and the menu selection was amazing! As was the service, the presentation, the speed, temperature and taste. We were very impressed by the quality of the food, and we went there 5 nights out of 7.

The only disappointing part of the whole cruise was La Cucina. The menu was uninspired and lacking. (What Italian restaurant doesn't offer eggplant parm?) The service was slow and unpredictable (one server never returned after taking a coffee order and the dessert took over 35 minutes to arrive). The food was mostly tasteless. Le Bistro was wonderful ! Service, food, selection, speed, presentation - it was all wonderful. If we hadn't had the offer of the two specialty restaurants, we would have been perfectly happy in Versailles all 7 nights. Read more